Gimlet's Oriental Quest
Gimlet's Oriental Quest, by W. E. Johns was published in November 1948 by Brockhampton Press. It was the fifth Gimlet book. The events in the book take place in Scotland and later in Thailand (then called Siam). French publisher Aredit adapted the story for their King comic series in two parts, with part 1 in an album entitled King et le plan du trésor '', published in May 1968 and part 2 in ''King dans la jungle, published in August 1968. Synopsis While fishing in Scotland, Cub comes to the aid of a boy whose father has been pursued and killed by two men. They are after a treasure map which the boy's father possessed. The two men will stop at nothing to get it but fortunately, Gimlet and Copper come to the rescue. Plot Note: The sections below contain spoilers. In particular, the plot subpage (click here) has an extended summary of the narrative in the book Characters *Gimlet *"Copper" Collson *"Cub" Peters *Dr Lander *Tony Lander *Smith *Gray *Tuanik *Peter Ross *Sandy Macrae *Macnaughton *Ina *Mrs Fraser *Kashan Bhandu *Mr Loo *Hawkins *Lord Rinborne *Kling Aircraft Ships Sally Places Visited *Auchrory *Thailand **Bangkok **The Little Lotus Flower **An opium den **Tankoy Mentioned Research Notes Chronology *The story opens in August but the year is not given. If it happened soon after the events in Gimlet Mops Up, it would be August 1947. Discrepancies *There are discrepancies in the geography between Gimlet Comes Home and Gimlet's Oriental Quest. **Chapter 1 Oriental Quest mentions that the local tavern "Strathcarglas Arms" featured dramatically in Comes Home. Actually the name of the tavern in the earlier story was "Glencarglas Arms". **In Oriental Quest, Cub takes a room in the "Fishers Arms Hotel" located in "the nearest village" of Auchrory. By this is meant the nearest village to Gimlet's property Stratchcarglas Lodge. **In Comes Home, Auchrory was indeed the nearest village or hamlet but the Glencarglas Arms itself was itself in Auchrory. The text suggests that this was the only hotel in Auchrory. There was no mention of "Fishers Arms Hotel" in that story. **In Comes Home, the station master at Tomnarrow-on-Spey says there is no transport to Auchrory. But in Oriental Quest, the innkeeper Macnaughton has a car. **In Oriental Quest, Auchrory is considerably larger than was described in Comes Home. Besides the Fishers Arms Hotel, there is a police station with a mortuary. There are also more people about. **One possible way to reconcile the two books is if Auchrory describes a district rather than a single village. This is suggested in Comes Home where it states in Chapter II: "It was not actually a village but a district, a few crofts scattered along a glen--Glencarglas, the valley of the River Carglas". If this is the case, there would be a few crofts and the Glencarglas Arms at one part of the glen, and this was where the action for Comes Home takes place. Further along the glen would be a larger population centre including the Fishers Arms Hotel and the police station. This would be the setting for Oriental Quest. Editions References External Links Category:Books Category:Gimlet books